Lippe Taylor’s Stephanie Smirnov: It’s an ‘extraordinary time’ for communications

Everyone will have their story to tell about 2020.

For Stephanie Smirnov, the new chief engagement officer at Lippe Taylor, 2020 will always be the year of adapting and adjusting. In her previous role as executive vice president of communications for Scholastic, she was brought in to run a centennial celebration to mark the company’s founding.

Three months into her new role, the COVID-19 crisis disrupted so much of what was previously guaranteed in American life.

“I think I probably learned more in that seven months as a communications practitioner than in the other 25 plus years of my career,” Smirnov says. “Between COVID, the economic downturn and Black Lives Matter—this ongoing global cry for social justice—it was an extraordinary time to be in corporate communications.”

Here are some of the lessons she takes from the last few months:

1. Employee engagement has never been better.

“If there was ever a dimension of corporate communications that has ever been more important and in need of rethinking and innovation, I would argue that it’s employee engagement/employee experience,” Smirnov says.